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Faith/Faith/Stereotypes
|text= Stereotypes Memes can cause significant changes via stereotypes. Stereotypes operate differently from most other faiths because people understand them to generally describe a group, and not thoroughly representative of any individuals. Just World Faith: This is the faith that people get what they deserve. The more people ascribe to this faith, the more true it becomes, though generally not in its simplest form, as the simplest form is very vague and thus has little reality-altering power. Instead, this base faith can help spread other instances - or exemplars - of the faith - such as the rumor that ‘this particular person is homeless because he easily tires of hard physical labor’ - which in turn, is specific enough a faith about his strength and grit, to sap the strength from that person’s limbs, and sap his mind of his grit. With enough people believing this sufficiently strongly, the person will waste away, and this becomes a vicious cycle. The opposite is also true: a faith that ‘this soldier became captain of the guard because of his combat prowess’ will work to bolster the person’s combat prowess, if only slightly. Sexist Faiths: A faith that women are soft and weak and need to be protected and treated with care will, should it be believed sufficiently - result in a general weakening and tenderizing of women across the board. Many men in positions of power in the world of Faith realize this, and so - among other reasons - go to great lengths to spread this meme, and to suppress any memes stating the opposite. Similar faiths may claim that women are less intelligent, or more emotional, or whatever, and to the extent that these claims are specific and truly believed by many, it will work to undermine the women of the world. Racist Faiths: Various ethnic groups, and races more generally, will have various stereotypes about both their own races (usually in a positive way) and other races (usually in a negative way). As with other stereotypes, the simplest form of the faith is very vague and has little reality-altering power, but it may manifest in a host of different ways, such as the belief that “this particular person is stupid like all the other peoples of his ethnicity” will actually render them less intelligent. And when this is done on a large scale - that is to say, across the entire race - it weakens the entire race, and makes it easier for the people of other races to take advantage of them, and legitimizes their racist beliefs in the first place, resulting in a vicious cycle that may ultimately culminate in the enslavement of entire races and ethnic groups, from which it is nearly impossible for them to escape. The opposite is also true: self-stereotypes claiming one’s own race is greatest may help facilitate accomplishments for their ethnicity, and that in turn legitimates their stereotype in the first place, causing a positive feedback loop. The same tendencies hold true for other in-groups, such as nationalities, sects, castes, professional associations, etc. Propaganda: Because people tend to gradually believe in lies as long as you constantly bombard them with those lies, propaganda can effectively convince people of certain faiths. Then, when in-groups (such as ethnicities) go to war against one another, each can leverage propaganda to beget a boon on their own, and hex those not of their own. Sects and other organizations that are able to use propaganda effectively can have an enormous advantage as a result. Equality Faith: This is the faith that all people are created equal (or at least, pretty close to equal), and that all other stereotypes are overblown. In the same way that other stereotypes differentiate between different groups, making one better at the expense of the other, the equality faith is itself a stereotype; it just works to undifferentiate all those different groups. Non-Person Stereotypes Counterfeiting/Gold/Items of Value: The general idea behind very valuable, desirable items such as magicite, gold, and magically enchanted items, is that they cannot be counterfeited, for if they could, wouldn’t everyone have already done so and thus devalued the worth of it to nothing? Hence, mages would think: since they’re obviously still valuable, and people are greedy,this must not be possible. This logical conclusion thereby results in those mages not being able to simply will gold or magicite out of other materials, and this in turn preserves the value of the gold or magicite. }}